CHAPTER 18

Serena's friends were all visiting her in her bedroom and she was visiting the kitchen to find something for them to snack on. Her parents were out shopping and Sammy was at a baseball game. The kitchen was deserted as Serena poked around in all the cupboards. "Where is something really sweet?" She muttered to herself. "Isn't there anything special around?"

Then she noticed a smell wafting from the microwave oven. It made her mouth water and she took a look inside. "Ah. It's a pie. Perfect." She eagerly removed it carefully with oven mittens and put it on a tray taking it up to her friends along with a bottle of orange soda she'd found in the fridge. They all gasped in awe as she cut the slices and urged them to dig in.

Luna and Artemis were astonished. "Where did that come from?"

"You didn't bake that pie did you Serena?"

"No Artemis. I found it in the microwave. I'm sure Mum must have baked it for me. I've been asking for some baked goodies."

Raye's voice dripped with oily sarcasm. "Oh, very good to hear that your mother made it. Then we know for sure it's safe to eat."
Her other friends chuckled and Amy added, "Yes. The last thing we need is to catch food poisoning before our final exams."

"Hey now. What's that supposed to mean?" Serena was feeling incensed, but Lita quickly spoke to defuse the situation.

"Oh nothing. Nothing at all." Then she began to distribute the pie on dishes. "Here for you. For you. For you."

Even Luna and Artemis tucked into samples. It was delicious. Mina said, "This apple pie is good. It has real apples in it."

"Well Mina," said Lita. "I guess Serena's mum likes the very best ingredients for her pastries."
Serena swallowed a mouthful and said, "Sure is yummy."

Suddenly there was a knock on the bedroom door and Rini's voice called out, "Hey Serena. Do you know where my apple pie that was in the microwave went to?"

Everybody froze in the midst of eating in shock and Serena gulped and spoke to the door without turning her head. "Um. Y-your apple pie, you say?"
"Yeah. I made it by myself. Your mother taught me how. Mind if I come in and talk to you a minute?"
Serena was struggling to try to make a reply of any sort as the door flew open and Rini's eyes grew as large as saucers when she beheld everybody eating her pie. She clenched her fists and began to tremble.

"Y-you've been eating MY pie!"

"We didn't know Rini," said Lita.

"Serena brought it in to us," Amy spoke mournfully.

"You're a thieving Meatball-Head Serena!" Rini was enraged and Mina admonished Serena.

"Why didn't you find out whose it was first?"
Raye leaped to her feet. "On behalf of the planet Mars, I shall punish you Serena for stealing a pie."

She seized Serena's cheeks and began to pull on them. Serena cried out. "Ohhh. Leggo Ay. Pease. You're hurring me."

Raye did not really mean to be cruel. Only firm. Realizing she had gone far enough she released Serena and she collapsed backwards in a half faint.

Rini was still ranting though. "I made that pie for Malcolm!"

Serena made a sudden fast recovery as her ears pricked up, "Who's Malcolm Rini?"

Rini's mood suddenly changed. She gasped and blushed. "It's not important. I must go now."
She left but a split-second later she was back speaking angrily once more. "But you're still a lousy, pie-pinching creep. I love my mother in the future, but I hate you. I'll never forgive you for this."
Then she was gone.

Amy asked where Rini was going. Serena answered, "She's going to an art class. She wants to learn how to make sculptures."
Lita remarked, "Sounds like she's made a friend at her art class."
Luna said, "I think this Malcolm means much more to Rini than mere friendship. She put a lot of effort into making this apple pie and she blushed and didn't want to talk when she let his name slip out."

Artemis said, "I think as soon as Serena finishes wolfing down the last of the pie she stole she had better go out and buy Rini something to apologize."
"Hey!" Serena just barely swallowed a mouthful so she could protest. "I need my money for my own treats!"
Her friends agreed with Artemis though. "How would you like it if somebody had stolen a pie you planned to give Darien?"
"You need to make it up to Rini."
"You go out and buy her a treat to make up Serena, or else I'll pull your cheeks again."
Raye's savage threat was enough to humble even Serena. "Okay. Okay. I'm going."
Luna added, "This is between you and Rini Serena. If we don't hear that you have fulfilled your obligation you shall answer to us."
Raye's pointer fingers and thumbs were acting menacingly like crab's claws and Serena gulped in fear and she set off after Rini. But her friends all agreed that Luna should secretly follow Serena.

Meanwhile at the headquarters of the Heartsnatchers Eudial was feeling very wound up as she waited for Germatoid to announce which of the creatures were to accompany her on her next dreaded mission. She could not explain what had been going on before, but Mistress 9 was convinced she was using her magic to try to protect certain members of the Tomoes' daughters in defiant disobedience to commands to stay uninvolved in their battles even if they died. If anything happened again this time she shuddered to think what it would mean for her.

As she sat in her chair she heard a voice behind her. "Eudial."
With a gasp she turned to see Mimette approach. "Eudial. The others and I have noticed lately you seem to be upset and edgy. Is something wrong?"
None of the other witches suspected that Eudial was facing terrible punishment because of their actions. They were mutually concerned that she wasn't her usual self though and had selected Mimette to speak to her.

Eudial got to her feet smiling nervously. Mistress 9 had forbidden her to say a word to the others and she struggled to find some harmless reply. "Oh! Mimette, um, it's nothing really. I'm, ah, only worried about these strange girls in those outfits. The creatures are keeping them busy while I get more heart victims, but I hope they don't spoil our plans and restore them all to normal like last time. And if Kaori is restored how would we explain to all the creatures? They'd mob us."
This reply sounded sensible to Mimette and she placed her hand on Eudial's shoulder speaking comfortingly. "I understand. The rest of us have discussed some of these points you've mentioned. We've agreed that as far as Kaori is concerned we will keep her hidden away and not send her with the rest of our new growing zombie army as a precaution. Our masters will come up with a plan to fully defeat them I'm sure. They have great powers. Have faith in them Eudial."
Eudial was touched by Mimette's words. She thanked her and shared a brief hug. "I'll try to be strong. Thank the others for me."
Mimette promised and Eudial felt strangely glad she couldn't tell her the truth. The last thing she wanted was to upset her friends. She had enough reason to be upset without letting them worry too.

Meanwhile Germatoid was deep in thought while the creatures were going through their training. Of course, he was considering which two to send out this time, but he was also concerned about Doorknobdar. Naturally not for her well-being. She had been expelled from the training for her weak uselessness however she was a distraction to some of the others. Chagama, Toden and Haikyun had all been spending time with her giving her consolement. In fact they had even encouraged her to socialize with Hotaru and Tomodachi in their room where extra beds had been squeezed in for Nekonelle and Osoji while their broken arms were healing. All of them were starting to form a sisterly bond once more with Hotaru and Germatoid was worried that it would spread to the rest if something wasn't done about it. Somehow Doorknobdar would have to be destroyed soon.

As for Hotaru her condition was strange. She didn't have any fever or pain as such. She explained to Doorknobdar, Tomodachi and the rest of her sisters. "I know there's nothing really wrong with me. Yet I often feel uncomfortable and my strength is sapped. It feels like our sisters we lost, Cenecienta, Soiya, Dieheart and Chouton are all converged inside my stomach. As they all squirm around trying to get out I become nauseous and dizzy, unable to stand on my feet and look after myself."
"That sounds weird," said Nekonelle.

"Extraordinary," mused Osoji.

Tomodachi felt a little freaked out by it. "I'm scared. I can't understand what is happening and these attacks against our family are so upsetting."
Chagama stood up and went over to hug her. "There there Tomo. Be of good cheer. When our aunties, especially Eudial, finally help us destroy our enemies I'm sure Hotaru will settle down. It's just a combination of grief and worry."
"Th-thank you Chagama." Tomo sobbed gratefully upon her shoulder and Hotaru thanked her too.

They had all followed Chagama's example of taking their shoes off when they gathered together and they often had tea ceremonies officiated by her. Doorknobdar sipped her tea and said, "I really hope Daddy will forgive me for disappointing him when this is all over."
"He will Doorknobdar. You'll see that he will return to his old happy loving self again," Toden assured her.

Haikyun said grimly, "I certainly hope no more of us will be killed in the meantime."

But "Daddy" was just the shell of himself. He was alive but his consciousness was in a possessed coma and Germatoid was dwelling inside his body and mind. Doorknobdar did not know how much reason she had to fear, though for now he was concerned with more immedate matters. "Chiseler and Daruma will be sent out next. I'll make announcement to them and Mistress 9 shall get Eudial ready," he thought to himself with cold planning.

Soon Eudial was ready to go. Chiseler had been created from a set of sculptor artist tools. Half her face had the appearance of a normal person while the other half resembled some abstract face carved from stone. Overall blue texture, an enormous ear and an equally huge yellow eye. The rest of her looked just like an abstract statue with blue and purple down one side and protrusions like mini-shark fins on both her arms and legs. Strange thing was even though she wore no clothing apart from a red beret on her green hair, her body seemed to naturally form its own clothes with its bright colours. Nothing indecent was visible.

As for Daruma, her clothing closely resembled the patterns of a daruma doll from which she was made. She was dressed in a red upper body suit with yellow stripes on the chest area, black arms between shoulders and elbows and four rings of assorted colours around her stomach. Her legs were bare except for red knee coverings and her feet were in red high heels.

They all said farewell to everybody else. Their sisters wished them and Auntie Eudial the best of luck and the other witches made a show of the same. Eudial was feeling very nervous as she drove away with the pair of them, however none of her coven members felt particularly attached to either Chiseler or Daruma, so none of them secretly followed. They just congregated down in the underground base where Kaori and the other zombies stood still moaning next to the cabinet where their beating hearts were stored in a creepy row.

Getting back to Rini, when she was approaching her art school she had a big shock in addition to the shock of Serena stealing her pie that she baked for Malcolm. As she rounded the corner she pulled up with a gasp and quickly ducked down behind some convenient nearby rubbish bins. Malcolm was standing at the front gate greeting the art teacher as she arrived with a beautiful bouquet of red flowers in his hands. "Hello Miss Manchester."

Miss Manchester was in her early thirties, six and a half feet tall with bright blue eyes and ginger hair. Looking down in surprise she exclaimed, "Oh hello Malcolm. What have you got there?"

Malcolm struggled to find the right words. "Well. Um."
"What's the matter?"

Plucking up courage he handed the bouquet to her. "I bought you these roses Miss Manchester because I think you're very special."
She took the roses exclaiming, "Oh how lovely they are! Thank you."
"I chose red because they stand for love," he explained.

Rini gasped and thought, "Oh no. He can't prefer our teacher over me!"
Miss Manchester bent down and gently kissed Malcolm's cheek. "This is very sweet of you."
In her distress Rini accidentally bumped one of the bins making a sound that drew attention to her.

"Why hello Rini. I didn't see you over there," said Miss Manchester.

Malcolm waved and grinned. "Hi Rini."
Rini controlled herself and waved back. "Uh. Hello Miss Manchester and Malcolm."
Miss Manchester said, "Better come inside Malcolm and Rini. Everybody else must be inside waiting for me so class can begin. We mustn't keep them waiting and I shall need to put these adorable roses in a vase of water."

"Okay." Malcolm followed her like a devoted pet dog and Rini fumed to herself.

"Well if I'm up against competition, I'll do whatever it takes to win Malcolm's heart." So saying she went in after them.

Luna finally caught up with Serena at the entrance of the art school five minutes after Rini had gone inside. "Serena! What exactly are you doing?"
"Oh Luna," Serena jumped. "You gave me a start. Why are you here?"
Luna sighed. "I've been keeping an eye on you ever since you left."
"SPYING ON ME!?"

"Serena can it! I haven't seen you go to any store and buy anything for Rini. Answer my question please. What are you up to?"

"If you must know I decided that since I took that apple pie and spoiled the surprise Rini had planned for her friend, first and foremost I should keep a close watch on her and make sure she is getting on well with him."
"You can't just go spying on her. That would be trespassing."
"I won't be doing that Luna. I'll just use this old handy tool that's sitting in my pocket."
"Oh no. You can't mean," Luna groaned guessing correctly what Serena meant as she dug it out.

"DISGUISE POWER! TURN ME INTO AN ASSISTANT ART TEACHER!"

"I hope she doesn't goof things up terribly." Luna gritted her teeth as Serena ran off and knocked at the door introducing herself to Miss Manchester. She was surprised not expecting an assistant to drop in but she welcomed her and introduced her to the class. Rini, who was working next to Malcolm at their desks, raised one eyebrow suspiciously.

In the meantime Eudial was parking the car just one block away as Mistress 9 instucted her. She indicated to Chiseler and Daruma, "I sense we will find at least one of those enemies nearby. Follow me."
"We're behind you all the way dear aunt."
"We trust you with our lives fully."

The street was quiet and empty as the trio walked towards the art school and Eudial was inwardly terrified though she kept a calm demeanour outwardly.

Mistress 9 was hissing menacingly in her brain. "Don't you dare think of any interference this time Eudial, or else I'll be reporting you to Germatoid."
Eudial was so scared she made no reply whatsoever.

Getting back to the art class, while Miss Manchester was walking around checking on how all the students were doing with their sculptures, Serena was pleased to see that she was starting over at the opposite end of the room from Malcolm and Rini. She went over to the table they shared and said to Rini, "Why, hello little girl."
But Rini whispered angrily, "What are you doing here? I recognize you Serena!"

Serena was taken aback but whispered in return, "It's okay. I'm here to help your romance blossom."
Rini groaned as Malcolm spoke up. "Hello Miss. I haven't met you before. I'm Malcolm."

"Nice to meet you Malcolm. My name is, ah, Miss Cupid."
"You mean Miss Stupid," thought Rini as Serena took her hand and Malcolm's hand in each of hers.

"I believe I heard your name is Rini. Malcolm I hope you and Rini will be very good friends and make beautiful sculptures together one day."

Malcolm was surprised unsure of what to make of this. Blushing he said with a laugh, "Okay. Sure. Be right back."

Breaking away he went off on pretense of getting some more modelling clay and Serena whispered, "Look Rini. I've opened the door for you. Why don't you go over and talk to Malcolm?"

"Please go away Serena. You're embarrassing me."

Luna watching through the outside window pane was distressed worrying about what might happen. But the next moment she had plenty of reason to be distressed and worried as to everybody's mutual shock Chiseler and Daruma suddenly came charging into the classroom. "Our Auntie Eudial told us we could find one of the Sailor Scouts in here." Chiseler brandished a mallet and sculpting blade as she shouted.
"Show yourselves and fight!" Daruma twirled a giant calligraphy brush. "We like art ourselves, but at the moment we have a deep score to settle."

Before Miss Manchester and all the children could begin to panic, Serena shouted, "It's me you want you monsters! MOON COSMIC POWER!"

As Sailor Moon transformed Miss Manchester said, "It's going to be all right children. Sailor Moon is here."

The kids were thrilled to see her and clapped their hands and cheered. Rini could not become Sailor Mini-Moon without revealing her secret identity.

Daruma stepped forward first. "Prepare to fight back."
Sailor Moon became all cocky and began to scoff. "Oh yeah sure. You really think you can hurt me with that large, silly brush?"

Luna was still watching to see what would happen and she needed to quickly dive for cover as Sailor Moon came hurtling through the window smashing the glass. Fortunately she was not cut or scratched in the process and Tuxedo Mask gracefully came bounding out of nowhere to catch her safely in his powerful arms.

He put her down on her feet as Daruma and Chiseler charged together brandishing their weapons. Meanwhile back inside Eudial entered and upon orders from Mistress 9, proceeded to trap victims beginning with Miss Manchester. She barely had time to ask Eudial who she was before being sealed and sent to the other witches for heart extraction. Then just as the students all began ti shriek in terror she concentrated hard and magically ensnared them all. "Good work Eudial," said Mistress 9. "Send them back slowly one at a time every fifteen seconds so that Mimette and the others are not over swamped with their work."

Eudial was still a bundle of nerves, but she outwardly composed herself and said, "Y-ye-es Mistress 9." The first student vanished. Malcolm and Rini were trapped in their bubbles towards the end of the row. Everybody beat and kicked in vain trying to escape. Rini was furious, but also genuinely worried.

Tuxedo Mask was duelling Daruma using his cane against the huge calligraphy brush she had just used to throw Sailor Moon through the window. Meanwhile Chiseler was running at her swinging her mallet and stabbing with her blade. Sailor Moon desperately dodged and weaved while Luna leaped upon Chiseler's back digging her claws painfully in. Chiseler howled in pain and tried to shake Luna off flailing her arms. Luna shouted. "Hurry Sailor Moon! Attack!"
"Thank you Luna." Sailor Moon quickly produced her scepter and wound up its power. "MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK!"

As the enormous magical heart formed and shot towards Chiseler, Luna jumped off her back and bounded away. Chiseler barely had time to register anything as it collided obliterating her.

At that very moment Hotaru went into convulsions startling all her sisters present with her.

"Hotaru! What's wrong?" gasped Toden.

Chagama and Haikyun quickly ran to her side and gently supported her so she wouldn't fall while Nekonelle and Osoji watched with concern from their beds. Tomodachi was very upset and hugged Doorknobdar for mutual comfort.

As for Daruma, she had seen Chiseler's fate while fighting Tuxedo Mask and she screamed in horror. "Chiseler! No!"

Looking around she began to panic. "Auntie Eudial!" Eudial was nowhere to be seen and Tuxedo Mask took advantage of her own distraction to knock the brush out of her grip and hit her on the side of her head with his cane stunning her.

"Finish her off too Sailor Moon," he urged and Sailor Moon quickly fired up another giant heart. As Daruma was hit her last thoughts were, "Auntie Eudial. Why did you abandon us at our time of dire need?"

Hotaru jerked her body in the arms of Chagama and Haikyun. Tomodachi buried her face in Doorknobdar's chest weeping and Nekonelle shouted, "Get her on her bed!" Toden assisted the others in carefully lying her down and they gently asked her if she was all right.

The main shock was beginning to settle but Hotaru was still upset. She could feel Chiseler and Daruma added to the others deep inside her. She knew what had happened and all her dead sisters were inside her weighing her down even more. She actually had a feeling she should be able to understand what was going on. However it was all a perplexing blank to her.

Meanwhile Sailor Moon and Luna were preparing to go back to the school and make sure everybody was okay. Tuxedo Mask had typically slipped away into the cover of the trees and bushes, though he did re-emerge as Darien since he was of course, worried about Rini.

He was following the other two when Rini, Malcolm and the other students came running towards them. Sailor Moon and Luna could sense that something was not completely well by the expressions on their faces. "What is the matter?" asked Sailor Moon.

Rini took the position of spokesperson in reply while Darien caught up. "Our teacher, Miss Manchester and a couple of our fellow students were spirited away by a strange woman with red hair. She would have eventually taken us all including Malcolm and myself, but she was fought off by two tall ladies dressed in similar outfits to you Sailor Moon. She quickly disappeared when they sent an enormous wave of water towards her. We were all freed but they didn't stay long. They ran out the front entrance and vanished in a single bound. They only tarried just enough to look at us all and the one with short, blond hair only said, "Pluto is coming Small Lady," before they dashed off."

The kids all wanted to know what was going on, who those strange Scouts were and what would happen to their teacher and classmates. Sailor Moon said, "I wish I could answer your questions. I promise though my friends and I will work hard on finding Miss Manchester and your friends."

She, Luna and Darien were all troubled in their minds as to what this could all be leading to. They still had no idea who Uranus and Neptune were, but they knew Pluto. So Trista was coming to join her allies in the search for Sailor Saturn. Would she confide in the Inner team? Would the Outers all work with the rest of them or would Trista be just as coldly aloof as her colleagues? And who were behind these creepy extraordinary attacks? When they solved the mystery would they be able to defeat them? These were all ominous questions indeed.